The opus

« O all ye seekers after this Art, ye can reach no useful result without a patient, laborious, and solicitous soul, persevering courage, and continuous regimen. » ~ “Turba philosophorum”, 12th century.

« Anyone who gives himself up to this search must therefore expect to meet with much vexation of spirit. He will frequently have to change his course in consequence of new discoveries which he makes… The devil will do his utmost to frustrate your search by one or the other of the three stumbling blocks, namely, haste, despair, or deception… he who is in a hurry will complete his work neither in a month, nor yet in a year; and in this Art it will always be true that the man who is in a hurry will never be without matter of complaint… If the enemy does not prevail against you by hurry, he will assault you with despondency, and will be constantly putting into your minds discouraging thoughts, how those who seek this Art are many, while they are few that find it, and how those who fail are often wiser men than yourself. He will then ask you what hope there can be of your attaining the grand arcanum; moreover, he will vex you with doubts whether your master if himself possessed of the secret which he professes to impart to you; or whether he is not concealing from you the best part of that which he knows. » ~ “The hermetic museum”, 1678.

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This entry was posted on December 3, 2010 at 14:28 and is filed under Research.